This work is dedicated to the simulation of full cycles of the electrical
activity of the heart and the corresponding body surface potential. The model
is based on a realistic torso and heart anatomy, including ventricles and
atria. One of the specificities of our approach is to model the atria as a
surface, which is the kind of data typically provided by medical imaging for
thin volumes. The bidomain equations are considered in their usual formulation
in the ventricles, and in a surface formulation on the atria. Two ionic models
are used: the Courtemanche-Ramirez-Nattel model on the atria, and the "Minimal
model for human Ventricular action potentials" (MV) by Bueno-Orovio, Cherry and
Fenton in the ventricles. The heart is weakly coupled to the torso by a Robin
boundary condition based on a resistor- capacitor transmission condition.
Various ECGs are simulated in healthy and pathological conditions (left and
right bundle branch blocks, Bachmann's bundle block, Wolff-Parkinson-White
syndrome). To assess the numerical ECGs, we use several qualitative and
quantitative criteria found in the medical literature. Our simulator can also
be used to generate the signals measured by a vest of electrodes. This
capability is illustrated at the end of the article
